The money was intended to add to Bankman-Fried’s political influence and goodwill and did not benefit FTX or Alameda Research.
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FTX’s efforts to claw back customer funds are continuing. Alameda Research and FTX filed suit on July 19 seeking the return of $71.6 million in allegedly commingled corporate and customer funds related to investments and donations to life sciences companies.
The defendants in the suit are six life sciences companies, the FTX Foundation philanthropical organization, the Latona Biosciences Group “sham” nonprofit, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX Foundation head Nicholas Beckstead and Latona head Ross Rheingans-Yoo.
The suit claims that the FTX Foundation and Latona donated or invested funds in six life sciences companies for the personal benefit of Bankman-Fried and Rheingans-Yoo and without any benefit to Alameda Research or FTX. At issue are eight transfers from Alameda Research to the companies made between February 2022 and October 2022 on behalf of Latona.
FTX seeks to recover through avoidance of transfers of $71.5m from
Life Sciences, Lumen Bioscience, GreenLight Biosciences Holdings, PBC, Riboscience, Genetic Networks, 4J Therapeutics, Latona Biosciences, FTX Foundation, SBF, Ross Rheingans-Yoo and Nicholas Beckstead pic.twitter.com/T7lF3sZmzN
The investments in the life sciences companies were allegedly made without due diligence or independent valuation. According to the suit:
“Bankman-Fried in fact pursued these transactions because he believed that doing so would generate goodwill and amass political capital and influence for himself,” the suit added.
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The suit includes four counts of fraudulent transfers, two counts of property recovery, an unjust enrichment charge against Latona, the disallowance of bankruptcy claims against the life sciences companies, breaches of fiduciary duty by Bankman-Fried and aiding and abetting in breaching fiduciary duty by Beckstead and Rheingans-Yoo.
The new FTX management has aggressively pursued misappropriated customer funds. Recovering charitable donations has proven to be a particularly complicated undertaking, as funds have gone to major universities, researchers and even students, as well as to quirkier recipients.
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